Idiots move to ban people from nodding off in libraries

THUMBS DOWN and BOO to the burgers of Iowa City Public Libraries. Library director, Susan Craig, says she and her colleagues are moving towards a ban on sleeping in the reading rooms. Says she:

“People sleeping in the library disturb other people. It makes them uncomfortable, particularly if they are laying down on a couch. If there’s a 20-year-old college student with their head down on their textbook they need to be treated the same way as someone who is dressed in a way that someone may assume they’re homeless.”

Ridding libraries of tired students and the homeless will give the elderly, mums with toddlers the run of the place. Unless mum, junior or grandpa falls asleep with a book on their laps. If they nod off, they are out. They can go and sit in the shopping mall. They can sit on a tiny yellow seat in Waterstones and flick through books. They can go somewhere else. Where? Home is the only free place left. Go home. Be on your own. Stare at your eReader. And when they go, the libraries will close.

Librairies are pretty much the only place you can go and sit down in comfort without having to pay to buy a coffee or risk being moved on. You can sit and read the newspapers. You can use the toilets. You can sit in silence and just be. You sit surrounded by knowledge. Someone who even considers banning anyone from using libraries is a fool.

In the UK, libraries are closing. They say that it costs too much to keep open these places of learning – places where public money can be seen helping people. Keep libraries open. Here’s one way of saving your library:

Image: Marcel Barber, 53, left, and Frank Lee, 55, play chess at the city’s Main Branch library on Friday, Aug. 6, 2010, in downtown Camden, N.J. New Jersey’s most impoverished city will close all three branches of its public library at year’s end unless a rescue can be pulled off. Camden’s library board says the libraries won’t be able to afford to stay open past Dec. 31 because of budget cuts from the city government. The city had its subsidy from the state cut. (AP Photo/Jessica Kourkounis)